WASHINGTON — Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, may be first in line to take over the House ethics committee next year, a position he said he’d be honored to hold. But make no mistake, Bonner is definitely not campaigning for the post.

"Lobbying for it is kind of like asking for a root canal without even a shot of Novocain," Bonner said.

Rather than the top spot on a committee whose work he characterized as important but often mundane, clandestine and difficult, Bonner said he was hoping for a more choice role on the powerful Appropriations Committee.

Bonner currently sits on two Appropriations subcommittees — one focused on commerce, justice and science; the other on labor, health and human services — but he’s got his eyes on another subcommittee.

"I want to get on defense. That’s my first priority. Whether I can get on it this time or not, I don’t know, but I want to get on it for some obvious reasons," he said. "There’s a little shipyard called Austal, and there’s a little tanker contract."

The Appropriations Committee crafts bills directing government spending, with subcommittees handling many of the details of such legislation. Military contracts that go through the Subcommittee on Defense can be worth billions of dollars, and companies in southwest Alabama have been prominently in the running for such work in recent years.

These include Austal USA, an Australian-based shipbuilder that employs 1,800 workers in its Mobile shipyard, as well as EADS North America and Northrop Grumman Corp, which for years have been jointly pursuing a potential $40 billion contract to assemble aerial refueling tankers at the Brookley Field Industrial Complex.

Still, Bonner, who represents Alabama’s 1st Congressional District, emphasized that his goal is not to pump Mobile full of pork from Washington.

"I don’t want to get on it to direct work to an Alabama company that’s not qualified and not deserving. But I do want to get on it — if I’m fortunate enough to — to be a guardian of fairness," he said, adding that he feels the tanker competition was tilted in favor of rival Boeing Co.

Despite regional interest in military spending, Bonner said he hopes to use his role on the Appropriations Committee to shrink the size of government and eliminate earmarks.

"We have an opportunity to put the microscope over the federal government. It is too big. We do spend too much," Bonner said.

He added that if his bid for the defense subcommittee falls short, he’s also interested in another two years on the commerce, justice and science subcommittee, as well as a new stint on the energy and water subcommittee.

Bonner’s most prominent role in Congress currently may be on the House ethics committee, where he serves as ranking member, the top Republican. Bonner and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., shared a heated exchange last week during Rangel’s ethics trial.

With the GOP winning the House Nov. 2, ranking members are the most obvious candidates to take over committees.

If Republican leaders ask him to serve as chairman of that committee, Bonner said that he will. If the reins are handed to someone else, Bonner said, "I would not be an unhappy camper."

The congressman said he expects to know his committee assignments early next month.